


Wildfire

by wrenstars



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Dark, Ezra as Starkiller, Leia plays matchmaker, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-18
Updated: 2016-10-18
Packaged: 2018-08-23 04:27:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8313964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wrenstars/pseuds/wrenstars
Summary: Luke fell hard for his father's newly recruited assassin; the passion seeped deep within him and spread like wildfire.





	

**Author's Note:**

> so I became enthralled with this dark!au (thanks, alex!) and had to write this! some times have deviated from canon. in this story, padme gave birth to luke and leia on the day of order 66, and the twins were taken into custody of vader. 
> 
> and, i fell so in love with this, that i'm now planning a full-length fic based off the basics of this one shot!

Luke grins as he cuts through the Rebel soldiers with ease. His blood red blade passed through their blasters as though they were as soft as butter, and cut short the lives of other men, either by their deflected blasts shots or a fatal lightsaber wound. Battle was when he felt alive, the adrenaline surging through his veins, the Force ready to respond to his commands. Every moment was exhilarating.

Luke cast a quick glance to his left and saw Ezra leaping through the crowds of soldiers, his blade twisting in a deadly arc. He wasn’t taking them seriously, Luke could tell: the unnecessary leaps and were maneuvers were more for his own enjoyment.

“Show off!” Luke yells across the battlefield. He easily deflects several shots. “You won’t get the mission done if you continue to mess around!”

“What?” Ezra calls back, with false innocence. “I’m just practicing what I’ve been taught.” But his next move took out three soldiers with a single stroke. He winks at Luke, who only rolls his eyes in return.

The battle didn’t last much longer – if one could even call it a battle. Luke surveys the results as the final soldier falls, and nods to himself. _Father will be pleased_ , he thinks, and brushes a speck of dust from his black sleeves.

Ezra stretches beside him. “Good run,” he says. His eyes, molten gold in colour, glow. It was a look that always reminds Luke of burning embers that simply refuse to go out. It’s a look that suited Ezra.

Luke chuckles. “Good run? It was one of our best. How long did that take – ten minutes at the most?”

The two of them had been sent by Vader to capture a Rebel base that had gained access to critical Imperial files. Luke was disappointed. For a base containing such information, it really should have had a better security system. He had hoped for a challenge.

Ezra shrugs. “Can’t help that we’re too good. Especially together.” He grins widely at Luke.

Luke doesn’t know how he completes his missions sometimes, when Ezra grins like that. Sometimes he feels as though the real battle was keeping his attention on the fight at hand, while he tries to suppress the urge to kiss his boyfriend.

It was frightening, sometimes, to realise just how close he’d come to not having Ezra in his life. He had once been used to it being himself, Leia, and their father on Coruscant. He and Leia were thick as thieves, being trained in the Force together and, at other times, running a muck. Now he was older, Luke wonders if their father ever regrets teaching them at such a young age. The mischief a pair of six-year-olds who could use the Force could get up to was considerably greater than what two non-sensitive twins could.

They’d never known their mother. Apparently, she’d disappeared just days after giving birth to them.

By the time he and Leia were nineteen, they were both immeasurably strong with the Force and being trusted with their own missions. Vader, however, hated putting them in too much danger. The more delicate operations were always handed to the expendable Inquisitors.

But when the use for the Inquisitors faded and they were no longer useful, Palpatine had them all eliminated. Leia and Luke tried to argue with their father that they were more than capable of handling deadly assignments, but he’d paid them no heed. Instead he took a leaf out of a man he said had been named Dooku, and found himself an assassin.

Luke had been talking with Leia about the recent Senate meeting when Vader arrived, his intended assassin in tow. Luke had been startled by his father’s choice. They boy was no older than Luke was, and his eyes were electric blue, not the yellow of the Dark side. He’d been cuffed, his eyes narrowed and face pulled into a fierce scowl as he glared at his surrounds. Despite the absent gold in his eyes, Luke could feel the boy’s force and hatred pulsing through the Force, as bright and powerful as wildfire.

So he wasn’t completely hopeless, Luke had thought.

The boy’s eyes had widened a fraction when they came to rest of Luke and Leia, but their father made him follow before more than three seconds of eyes contact had passed.

“Father?” Luke had asked later that day. “What do you see in that boy?”

“He’s brushed with the Dark Side before,” his father explained. “I’ve been watching him for some time. His mentor had always prevented him from allowing it to consume him – but that will not be the case here. He had potential.”

Luke nodded, and his inquisitive spirit sparked. He wanted to know more about the boy. From what he’d seen and heard, he was intriguing.

He wished to see what happened to the boy, but neither he nor Leia were allowed to see him.

Then, two months later, he found them.

Luke had been practicing lightsaber forms with Leia when the boy walked into the room. For a moment they’d both pointed their lightsabers toward him, until he lifted his head to reveal his yellow eyes.  
Luke had stuttered, a strange feeling swooping in his chest. Leia’d had to elbow him back to his senses. He couldn’t help it – the boy looked different, good different, with those eyes.

Leia, ever cool and collected, raised an eyebrow. “What does us the honour of meeting you?” she’d asked.

The boy shrugged. “Lord Vader sent me to you. You’re supposed to assess my lightsaber skills.”

Leia grinned. “Well, Luke’s the best at lightsaber combat out of all of us. You two duel, I’ll watch.” It was as though she’d known the boy all her life, she had been so casual with him.

Luke stared at Leia, who had only winked in response and tossed her lightsaber to the two, who caught it deftly. It ignited at once. Clearly, he was focused. Luke shook his head. He might be the best duelist in the family, but that would get him nowhere if he didn’t regain a grip on reality. His own blade soon hummed with energy and they lunged at each other, the two red blades meeting with a flourish of sparks.

The fight continued for a decent length. Luke couldn’t help but be impressed with the boy. Though obviously less experienced, his technique was high, his ability and footwork skilled. He’d told him that much once the fight was finished, though he hesitated when he reached the boy’s name.

“Starkiller,” he’d said nonchalantly. “That’s the name I was designated by Lord Vader.”

Luke nodded. It wasn’t uncommon for new names to be given – just look at the Inquisitors! Luke, however, had still found himself wishing to know more. What he didn’t tell Starkiller was how mesmerising his face was when they duelled; how his concentration had almost slipped when he caught the fierce and overwhelming sheer determination and passion in Starkiller’s gaze.

“You’re head over heels already,” Leia had teased when Starkiller left. She had been grinning wickedly.

Luke glowered at her. “Shut up. He’s just easy to look at, is all.”

His twin only smirked knowingly and flaunted off.

The weeks passed, Starkiller only growing more and more powerful. Luke spent a lot of time with him, practicing duelling and watching his skill increase at a prodigal rate. Luke had smirked at the thought. No wonder his father chose him.

And he was glad he had. He grew closer with the other boy, talking with him, often after their duels. Leia accepted him easily as well, though it was with Luke he developed the strongest bond. He was easy to joke with, easy to be around, and he made Luke forget himself.

When Vader had deemed Starkiller fit to carry out his first mission, Luke had been besieged with worry the entire duration of his absence. Leia teased him mercilessly, but Luke didn’t care. He knew their friend’s abilities were extensive, but he couldn’t help but worry.

Plus, despite Leia and his father, Luke missed Starkiller. He felt strangely lonely with him gone.

It had been difficult to conceal his relief when Starkiller returned, not even scratched. The other boy had sent a bright, wild grin Luke’s way, his eyes as bright as flames. Luke’s heart had faltered, and that was when he knew for sure the boy wasn’t just easy on the eyes, or even a good friend. Luke was, in Leia’s terms, head over heels.

“Took you long enough,” Leia quipped when Luke informed her. He only glared at her, to which her only response had been to laugh.

Between their respective missions, Luke sought to spend as much time with Starkiller as possible. Vader never extended the same rights to him as he did to Luke and Leia – he was, to Luke’s father, only a weapon – but Luke invited him to spend time in his quarters, or practiced duelling, or they spent time outside in Coruscant. Leia often set them up for those little meetings.

The night everything changed was when, late at night, he and Starkiller had been awake in Luke’s quarters. Luke lounged across his bed, while Starkiller kept spinning on the chair in the room.

And Luke amassed the courage to ask him his name.

“Not Starkiller,” he’d hastily added, when he friend’s eyebrows furrowed. “But the name you were born with. Who you really are.”

His friend’s eyes widened and he hesitated. His hands tightened around the armrests of the chair he sat on. Luke could see the turmoil of emotions in his eyes, like an ocean during a storm.

“Ezra,” he’d said, slowly, as though the name was foreign on his tongue. Luke barely heard him. “My name was Ezra Bridger.”

Ezra. Luke’s stomach twisted. It fit him perfectly.

They were inseparable from that moment on, their bond as deep as Luke and Leia’s. Luke called Ezra by his name. His father disapproved, but no amount of criticism would stop Luke. Ezra was more than a weapon – he was a friend. A person. And Luke was in love with him.

Luke also campaigned with his father to be sent on Ezra’s missions. Initially Vader had refused point blank, but after a mission when Ezra returned burnt and scarred and bleeding and Luke had refused to leave his side, his father summoned him.

His father’s eyes had pierced him, giving Luke the sensation he was being examined to his core. It made him squirm.

“You love the boy, don’t you, son.” It hadn’t been a question.”

Luke had blinked, startled by his father’s insight. “Yes, father,” he’d stammered.

A heavy silence had fallen between them.

“I’d rather you not care so deeply for the assassin -” Luke had to press his lips tightly together to refrain from interrupting with _His name’s Ezra_ “- But there is nothing I can do. I suppose it would be beneficial if the two of you worked together.”

Luke’s head snapped up and his heart had soared as though hurtling through hyperspace. He couldn’t stop the grin that spread across his face.

“Thank you, father,” he said hastily, and hurried to find Ezra.

That first battle passed flawlessly. He and Ezra knew each other inside out and worked together, two halves of a whole. The battle had been short but it had been exhilarating. Luke had never felt more alive in battle than when he had Ezra by his side.

When it finished, Luke had looked at Ezra. He outfit was rumpled, his hair messy but standing there, ignited lightsaber in his hand and head held high, Luke’s heart had stopped.  
And started again, racing at lightspeed when Ezra kissed him.

Luke had been drunk on that kiss, drunk on Ezra, his happiness so wild it couldn’t be controlled. He’d been breathless when they parted, and Ezra’s cheeks had darkened.  
But they both grinned and Luke caught Ezra’s lips in another kiss.

From then on, they followed each other everywhere. They fought every battle together, spent every hour possible in the company of the other. It actually worked out well – Leia, despite being as powerful as Luke, kept having to deal with the Senate. Out of all of them she was the only one who had grasped the complex nature of politics, and spent a lot of her time there smoothing out issues. This, in turn, allowed Luke to spend more time with Ezra, fighting effortlessly together or just sitting beside one another, talking.

Now, Ezra grins at Luke, and it reminds him so much of the time they first kissed that Luke can’t resist pulling Ezra toward him and kissing him fiercely. Ezra responds just as passionately, smirking when he bites Luke’s lip.

“Menace,” Luke murmurs.

Ezra laughs and kisses Luke again.

They stay there for a while – time is an alien concept whenever he’s with Ezra – but after a while Luke reluctantly steps back.

“Come on,” he sighs. “Let’s grab these files and return. You know what Leia will say if we stay here too much longer.”

Ezra snorts. “Let her. I bet she’ll fall for someone less respectable.”

“A criminal or petty smuggler, perhaps?”

“Something along those lines.”

Luke chuckles and allows Ezra to lead him back to the ship.


End file.
